Posted by jc-Qualitystreet on 2011/11/27
“Remember the Future” is one of the 13 games offered and popularized by Luke Hohmann.
I’ve already talked about the Product Vision Box and Speed Boat which I use regularly … it is now time to introduce you with another game…
Remember the future … not only to mitigate cognitive biase
your customers and users are not good to speculate on the use of a future product. The user is not a designer, and this kind of questions: “What should our product do?” is mostly useless.
Too vague, too open,… As a designer or user researcher you, you need to be cautious with the comments users make about a future usage…
Users tend to generalize, simplify or idealize ...
Remember the future is a little technique to minimize these biases by immersing the user in a past that will be more concrete for him.
It’s a simple game, really appropriate to frame the content of a release, or to agree on the success criteria of a specific project or mission. *
And this is exactly how I have used it for the first time 4 years ago: the objectives of the mission were unclear, the context was complex, we had a large number of “high level” participants at our workshop…. Remember the future allowed us to move smoothly and to complete the impressive series of workshops requested …
Remember the future help you to establish a reference point for comparison; it gives context and enables both better understanding and exploration. As Luke Hohman says, it works:
“Because it is easier to understand and describe a future event from the past tense over a possible future event ”
An example of scenario:
“We are in September 2012 it is now six months that you use this new product, you’re happy with it and people can see it. (Step 1) This morning you meet your boss asking you what do you like so much in this new product, and what the product has done for you the last three months” (Step 2)
There are many variations on the implementation of the game (various scenarios or levels of detail) but the most important element remains the questioning:
BEFORE (and classically without the game): “What the product should do?”
AFTER (as part of the game): Context + “What will the product have done?”
The idea behind the game, as any UX technique, is to play the game with many users… Don’t hesitate to alternate “one on one” formats or small group dynamics …
Another benefit of Remember the future is that it can be used in multiple situations. Recently, I used the game to fit the expectations of my clients for my agile coaching activities.
They were two … we first exchanged on the issue, I gave them the scenario and asked them to work individually for 5 minutes generating notes. Then, they did grouping on the poster.
Results: we had a clear idea of 4 or 5 areas to focus on!
“Involve me and I’ll understand!”
Posted by jc-Qualitystreet on 2011/02/14
I usually say to Agile teams that the most important outcome of a sprint (or release) retrospective (but also important workshops), is the Action Plan.
Scrum Retrospective Action Plan. A crucial element of facilitation.
Both past and future oriented, the SCRUM retrospective meeting aims to discover what the team did well, understand what went wrong, and to find ways to improve. It’s an important and intense exchange and communication event.
But completing an action plan, at the end of the retrospective, is the only way to make it fully successful and to engage the team in a continuous improvement approach (Inspect & Adapt) for better performance.
Simple
Concise and just enough…
Only a short list of actions (4 max) and three columns that make it simple and effective.
- What (the action: task-oriented, smart and with a verb)
- Who (the owner of the action)
- When (the agreed due-date)
Visual and visible
Build in collaboration on a large sheet of paper. At the end of the meeting, the action plan will join the team’s information radiator, into the team’s workplace to make it visible every day by everybody’s eyes. Communication is crucial for continuous improvement, and visual management is an effective strategy to make the follow up and to maintain engagement.
At the end of the next sprint, actions items of the previous plan will be reviewed: Done or KO…
SMART
Of course, the actions included in the “what” column are SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
Then, I like to get the team’s commitment to the plan before closing the meeting and doing the ROTI (Return On Time Invested).
Posted by jc-Qualitystreet on 2010/12/21
Guess where in this very high building I gave my Scrum Product Owner training today 
The answer:
And Inside ( only one side of the room !):
Being Agile it’s also being different in terms of environment !
Posted by jc-Qualitystreet on 2010/12/16
The Parking Lot helps to track important items, ideas and issues that may not be useful to discuss at a time in the agenda.
The principle is to return to them later.
Parking Lot in action
The Parking Lot is a simple facilitation tool: you just need a poster and some sticky notes. But it enables you to send strong messages to participants of a workshop:
1. “I’ve heard you”
2. “We won’t forget”
3. “We will talk about it for sure”
Indeed, at the end of the workshop or when the training day ends, we take 10 to 15 minutes to review the items put in the Parking lot with the team.
We seek to identify:
- Items that must be addressed now (AND so we do NOW)
- Items that need to be address but not right now (so they remain in the Parking Lot)
- Items that no longer need to be addressed, for example done (so we remove it…)
Because sometimes it is not the right time… For your training or coaching sessions, the Parking Lot is a really effective tool!
Posted by jc-Qualitystreet on 2010/10/19
The “AGILE TEAM RADAR” is a self assessment tool I like to propose during sprints retrospective to collect data, especially with teams new to agility.
The exercise is directly inspired by Diana Larsen and Ester Derby (Agile retrospectives)
The problem
Teams don’t always understand the importance of agile values, and don’t perceive how they are intimately linked to their everyday practices.
“Thanks for the theory… Ok for the values but now… please tell me more about continuous integration test automation and agile requirements”
An answer
The necessity and the opportunity to return to foundations again and again! A good way to start: the agile team Radar with its good focus on the core agile (actually XP) values !
Agile Values In Action
How to proceed?
Step 1: Introduce the activity (why, how… self assessment, collect data, measure progress ….)
Step 2: Write, introduce values to the team making a short description of each value and trying to connect them with everyday practices. Good definitions to start:
Communication: Everyone is part of the team and we communicate face to face daily. We will work together on everything from requirements to code. We will create the best solution to our problem that we can together
Simplicity: We will do what is needed and asked for, but no more. This will maximize the value created for the investment made to date. We will take small simple steps to our goal and mitigate failures as they happen. We will create something we are proud of and maintain it long term for reasonable costs
Courage: We will tell the truth about progress and estimates. We don’t document excuses for failure because we plan to succeed. We don’t fear anything because no one ever works alone. We will adapt to changes when ever they happen.
Respect: Everyone gives and feels the respect they deserve as a valued team member. Everyone contributes value even if it’s simply enthusiasm. Developers respect the expertise of the customers and vice versa. Management respects our right to accept responsibility and receive authority over our own work
Feedback: We will take every iteration commitment seriously by delivering working software. We demonstrate our software early and often then listen carefully and make any changes needed. We will talk about the project and adapt our process to it, not the other way around
Step 3: Let the team make it real and link these values to their current practices… Let the discussion go !
Step 4 : Do the self assessment, anonymously, with a scale of 0-10 : how well the team is doing with the 5 agile values ?
Agile Value Card - Rate each value - 0 (not at all) to 10 (as much as possible) - It's anonymous !
Step 5: Collect the cards immediately after the exercise, Do the average by axis
Step 6: : Discuss the results and use it to track progress: NEXT SPRINT WE FOCUS ON FEEDBACK !
Sprint 1 vs Sprint 2 : Do you notice the progress ?
Benefits
- Precious to reinforce agile values
- Very useful to generate insights and discussion around practices / values
- Quick and easy
- Useful to identity strengths and weaknesses of a team in a “Kaizen” approach
- Very good for retrospectives and intresting in training and everyday coaching
